9/11: Giuliani's Dumb and Deadly Decisions

[Omaha Steve]

http://spewingforth.blogspot.com/2006/09/911-giulianis-dumb-and-deadly.html

Friday, September 08, 2006
PERMALINK Posted 11:02 PM by Jordan

9/11: Giuliani's Dumb and Deadly Decisions

If there was one hero of 9/11, it certainly wasn't President Bush, flying to and fro around the country in Air Force One, or Dick Cheney, hiding deep in some secret bunker. No, if there was any real hero for most people, it was certainly Rudy Giuliani -- rallying his people through the worst, saying just the right thing at just the right time -- and then there was that most vivid and lasting image of the Mayor running through the streets of lower Manhattan as his city collapsed around him.



But it was exactly his presence in lower Manhattan and his need to flee the falling World Trade Center buildings that symbolize the reality of his failure to prepare for that day.

Think about it. If you were the Mayor of New York, where would you place your central emergency command center? In secure, technologically advanced city facility just across the Brooklyn Bridge, or walking distance from City Hall, on the 23rd floor of the symbolic center of the nation's greatest city -- in a building that had already been attacked by terrorists -- 7 World Trade Center?

But it was to be the World Trade Cener because Rudy wanted to be able to walk to the command center. And, according to an article in this month's American Prospect (paid subscription), no amount of reasoning by his advisors could change his mind. (And the fact that there were some wealthy corporate types -- and Giuliani contributors -- who stood to make a few bucks off the deal probably didn't hurt either.)

And would an in-tact command center have made a difference on 9/11? Would it have saved any of the 341 firefighters and two paramedics who died that day?

Definitely, according to The 9-11 Commission’s senior counsel, John Farmer:

If the center had been located elsewhere and thus able to remain operational that day, he says, “I really think it would have made a difference. Maybe the failure to communicate among the agencies doesn’t happen that day because that thing is functioning. That’s the point of it. I’ve never been convinced that they could have done that much better with civilians, but I think the number of responder deaths could have been greatly reduced.”

FULL story at link above.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Why was Rudy so hell bent

on turning WTC7 into a time bomb waiting to happen, when he built his bunker complete with diesel storage, day tanks and a pressurized fuel system that ran around the trusses on the 5th Floor that held up the building ?

Why did Rudy not even step one foot in this multi-million dollar state of the art bunker on 9-11? Instead he went to 75 Vesey Street to set up operations before the towers fell?